[PRT2008: Agriculture and Man] March 30, 2011

1.0 ABSTRACT

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2.0 INTRODUCTION
Civilization (or civilisation) is a sometimes controversial term which has been used in several
related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to human cultures which are complex in
terms of technology, science, politics and division of labour. Such civilizations are generally
urbanized. In classical contexts civilized peoples were called this in contrast to "barbarian"
peoples, while in modern contexts civilized peoples have been contrasted to "primitive" peoples.

The term civilization basically means the level of development at which people live together
peacefully in communities. Ancient civilization refers specifically to the first settled and stable
communities that became the basis for later states, nations, and empires . The word civilization
comes from the Latin civilis, meaning civil, related to the Latin civis, meaning citizen, and
civitas, meaning city or city-state.

In modern academic discussions however, there is a tendency to use the term in a more neutral
way to mean approximately the same thing as "culture" and can refer to any human society (for
example, "Ancient Greek Civilization") associated with any particular geographical location at a
particular time, historical or current. Still, even when used in this second sense, the word is often
restricted to apply only to societies that have attained a particular level of advancement,
especially the founding of cities, with the word "city" defined in various ways.

The level of advancement of a civilization is often measured by its progress in agriculture, long-
distance trade, occupational specialization, and urbanism. Aside from these core elements,
civilization is often marked by any combination of a number of secondary elements, including a
developed transportation system, writing, standards of measurement (currency, etc.), contract
and tort-based legal systems, characteristic art styles (which may pertain to specific cultures),
monumental architecture, mathematics, science, sophisticated metallurgy, politics, and
astronomy.

  

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3.0 LESSON LEARNT FROM THE ANCIENT AGRICULTURE

Agriculture And Civilization: Lessons Learnt And Our Way Forward

The invention of agriculture had several consequences on humanity. It generated concept that did
not exist before, like the one of accumulation of goods and technologies, or the one of human
beings as separated from Nature, capable of building their own space. With agriculture, humanity
ceased to simply adapt itself to the environment, but started to (sometimes utterly) modify it
instead, taking cultivations out of their original areas and introducing them in other
environments. Two good examples are rice and wine growing in Asia and Central-Northern
Europe respectively: both represented a technological challenge against the environment
conditions, which started in the Middle Ages and continued in the Modern Age.

What we call "culture" indeed is a concept between tradition and innovation. It is tradition in so
far it is a set of knowledge, techniques and values which are handed down to us, and it is
innovation in so far these knowledge, techniques and values modify the role of human beings in
the environment, enabling them to create new realities. Tradition is a successful innovation, and
culture is the interface between these two perspectives.

Traditional Agricultural Practices:

 Shifting Cultivation is sometimes referred to as "swidden" or "slash and burn"

agriculture, and is the practice of cutting down and burning the natural vegetation to
establish fields for crops or grazing. The fields are cultivated for several seasons and
subsequently left to fallow (to return to their wild state). This is a common practice in the
tropics where soils quickly become nutrient-poor once the vegetation is removed and the
natural nutrient cycle is interrupted.
 Nomadic Pastoralism involves raising domesticated animals (goats, cattle, camels,
sheep), which feed on wild plants that are reached through continuous migration. Pastoral
farmers live almost exclusively off animal products.
 Continuous Cultivation is the practice of cultivation in the same fields, season-after-
season. It requires a high level of human and other inputs to stem losses due to depleted
nutrients, pests, and weeds.
 Mixed Subsistence Farming combines the practices of livestock and crop management
into an integrated system. Animals feed on crop remnants, and in turn, fertilize the fields
for the next season. Mixed agriculture, with livestock and crops integrated into a single
system, is very common in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Farmers are often highly
dependent on animals as a key component of the farming system.

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1.0 Lesson and learn from agriculture and civilization

1.1 The Industrial Revolution

With the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the development of more complicated
machines, farming methods took a great leap forward. Instead of harvesting cereal|grain by hand
with a sharp blade, wheeled machines cut a continuous swath. Instead of threshing the grain by
beating it with sticks, threshing machines separated the seeds from the heads and stalks.

1.2 Steam power

Power for agricultural machinery was originally supplied by horses or other domesticated
animals. With the invention of steam power came the portable engine, and later the traction
engine, a multipurpose, mobile energy source that was the ground-crawling cousin to the steam
locomotive. Agricultural steam engines took over the heavy pulling work of horses, and were
also equipped with a pulley that could power stationary machines via the use of a long belt. The
steam-powered machines were low-powered by today's standards but, because of their size and
their low gear ratios, they could provide a large drawbar pull. Their slow speed led farmers to
comment that tractors had two speeds: "slow, and darn slow."

1.3 Internal combustion engines

The internal combustion engine; first the petrol engine, and later diesel engines; became
the main source of power for the next generation of tractors. These engines also contributed to
the development of the self-propelled, combined harvester and thresher, or combine harvester
(also shortened to 'combine'). Instead of cutting the grain stalks and transporting them to a
stationary threshing machine, these combines cut, threshed, and separated the grain while
moving continuously through the field.

Though modern harvesters and planters will do a better job than their predecessors, the
combine of today still cuts, threshes, and separates grain in essentially the same way it has
always been done. However, technology is changing the way that humans operate the machines,
as computer monitoring systems, GPS locators, and self-steer programs allow the most advanced
tractors and implements to be more precise and less wasteful in the use of fuel, seed, or fertilizer.
In the foreseeable future, some agricultural machines will be capable of driving themselves,
using GPS maps and electronic sensors to become agricultural robots. Even more esoteric are the
new areas of nanotechnology and genetic engineering, where submicroscopic devices and
biological processes may be used as machines to perform agricultural tasks.

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2.0 Agriculture Inventions

Agriculture as we all know is production of agri goods through the cultivation of crops and also
by the massive domestication of animals. This study is called agri science. Agriculture
inventions have evolved massively by the years as farming and farm machines have grown too in
these years. What was done by the threshing machine for so many years has been taken over by
the combine.

One of the first agriculture invention was the iron plow used a lot those days in the 1700′s. Then
came the wood plow in the 1800′s and the iron plow was discontinued as the wood plow was
easier and better to use. And then man had a brain wave and discovered the use of animals in
farming and tamed horses and used them in the Reaper which was used in harvesting wheat and
were drawn by horses.

The Reaper was a huge success as an agriculture invention. After this man discovered he could
do more and a little more machinery will be more helpful and work can be done faster and on a
larger scale. The cotton harvester came in the 1920′s and it was a rage in agriculture invention.
This was used in harvesting wheat on a large scale and really benefited the farmer.

Before this came the grain elevator in 1840′s it was used in separating the grain from the wheat
plant. Soon the cotton gin followed which was used to separate the seeds and the hulls and the
other stuff not required from the cotton. This was quite a successful agriculture invention. Man
also developed the corn picker.

The most revolutionary agriculture invention was the Tractor which was invented in the 1940′s.
This was the time when hand power was transformed into machine power. The tractor took over
all manual work which used to take lot of time and energy of the farmers. This agriculture
invention took farming to a different level.

To add on major agriculture inventions fertilizers were developed in early 1900′s. This
accelerated the growth of the crops and produced very healthy crops too. A little later pesticides
were also produced which helped in killing all the harmful pests which destroyed the crops, so
this invention brought in a lot of development in agri-products. Open geared gas tractors were
also made during this time. Disk harrow which is a machine used to cut the grain stubble which
is left behind in the field after harvesting is over was also a big agricultural invention. This saved
a lot of manual labor and time too as a machine can work much faster than humans.

One of the latest developments in agriculture invention is the bio-technology and genetical
revolution. Bio-technology and genetics have changed the face of agriculture and farming. New
ways and technology has come up in farming with this revolution.

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New technology of farming has been developed by scientists and agriculturalists and has been
named as urban farming. This is a big step in agriculture invention. Scientists have developed
new technique called “hydroponics”, where plants are grown using mineral nutrient solutions
instead of the normally used soil. Another new technique is called vertical farming where
agriculturalists are growing crops in skyscrapers. This saves a lot of land problems and is a new
beginning and a huge step in agriculture invention.

Man and times have grown tremendously in history and so has farming. Agriculture invention is
growing as time grows by and it will take man places.

3.0 Further Innovations: New Tools And Specializations In The 4th Millennium

The first civilization also required the technological developments whose impact coalesced
around 4000 B.C. These developments addressed problems faced by agricultural peoples who
were encouraged by opportunities available in individual villages to share ideas and encourage
inventive colleagues. Most of the inventions thus occurred in regions where agriculture was best
developed, which for a long time meant the Middle East. At the same time, the new
inventions enhanced the productivity of Middle Eastern agriculture, creating the consistent
surpluses that would ultimately shape civilization itself. The result was a recurrent series of
technological changes. The first potter's wheel was invented by about 6000 B.C. It encouraged
faster and higher-quality ceramic pottery production, which facilitated food storage and
improved the reliability of food supplies. Pottery production promoted the emergence of a
group of specialized manufacturing workers who made pots to exchange for food produced by
others.

Better tools allowed improvements in other products made out of wood or stone. Obsidian, a
hard stone, began to be used for tools in the late Neolithic centuries. The wheel was another
Middle-Eastern innovation. Wheeled vehicles long remained slow but they were vital to many
monumental construction projects where large blocks of stone were moved to the construction
sites of temples. Shipbuilding also gradually improved. Developments of this sort, enhancing
production and possibilities for trade, set the framework for the outright emergence of
civilization with the rise of Sumerian society along the Tigris-Euphrates.

A key technological change, which occurred slightly after the emergence of the first civilization,
was the introduction of metal for use in tools and weapons. By about 3000 B.C., copper began to
be mixed with tin to make bronze; this development occurred around the Black Sea and in the
Middle East. Use of metal allowed manufacture of a greater variety of tools than could be made
of stone or bone, and the tools were lighter and more quickly made. The Middle

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East was the first region to move from the Neolithic (stone tool) Age to the Bronze Age. Other
parts of the eastern Mediterranean soon made the transition. Metal hoes, plows, and other
implements proved extremely useful to agricultural societies and also to herding peoples in
central Asia. Again new technology promoted further specialization as groups of artisans
concentrated on metal production, exchanging their wares for food. Widespread use of bronze
also encouraged greater trade, because tin, in particular, was hard to find by 2000 B.C. trade had
become a motivation for extensive development of sea routes.

4.0 Commentary: The Future Of Traditional Agriculture

Traditional farming is being replaced by modern intensive farming systems. This represents the
loss of farming systems that are stable, sustainable and from which many valuable lessons can be
learned. Traditional farming is also an important reserve and source of biodiversity. It is still
perhaps the only sustainable system on marginal land. High yields of modern intensive
agriculture have made it possible for the ever-increasing human population to be fed without the
extensive destruction of habitats to provide the needed food. Unfortunately, this has been
accomplished at the expense of the surrounding ecosystems. The challenge for the future is how
to increase yields in traditional systems while retaining a certain measure of their integrity, in
other words, to finds methods of sustainable intensification. Conversely, we need to integrate
biological diversity into existing modern commercial agricultural systems

There is evidence that the adoption of conservation methods on large commercial farms can
promote biological diversity (*FAO, 1996). Techniques such as crop rotation, intercropping,
cover crops, integrated pest management, and green manures can be used in larger commercial
systems. These practices can reduce dependence on fertilizers and pesticides and promote
sustainable intensification. An integration of farming systems, combining the productivity of
modern systems and the sustainability of traditional systems, could help to preserve biological
diversity and feed a growing population without excessive damage to the environment.

The first plants and livestock used for agriculture were wild species that early farmers knew were
edible, which were then grown or raised for human consumption. The practice of selective
breeding to produce individuals with desirable traits was soon supplemented with farming
practices that provided consistent supplies of water, nutrients, and fertilizers. The varieties and
breeds resulting from these practices are highly adapted to their specific man-made
environments. Traditional agricultural approaches are not practical for mass food production, yet
they account for a substantial amount of local food production in the developing world.

Traditional agriculture is often considered a step between the local "hunt-and-gather" practice,
which provides communities with subsistence levels of food, and the practices of "modern
agriculture," which are used to mass-produce food for global distribution.

Agriculture in the Middle Ages (500 – 1500 AD)

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Much advancement made by Muslims during the Abbasiyyah Caliphate and in Al-Andalus
based on extensive irrigation & cultivation knowledge

4 key factors spearhead the agricultural revolution/evolution:

– Advanced irrigation system – aqueducts, qanats, waterwheels (norias)
– Scientific approach to farming
– Incentives – land ownership, workers rights & financial rewards
– Introduction of new crop and plant species and new cultivation techniques derived from
experimentation

Muslim (Arabic) Agricultural Revolution

Examples of agricultural innovations introduced in the Muslim
Caliphates:
 New forms of land tenure
 Improvements in irrigation with a variety of sophisticated irrigation methods, eg.
– Gravity-flow irrigation systems from rivers and springs
– Norias and chain pumps for irrigation purposes
 Introduction of fertilizers
 Establishment of the sugar cane industry in the Mediterranean
 Experimentation in sugar cane cultivation
 First factory milling installation (in Baghdad)

Ancient Mesopotamia

In water wheel history recorded by ancient Mesopotamia, irrigation machines are referred to in
Babylonian inscriptions, but without details on their construction, suggesting that water power
had been harnessed for irrigation purposes. The primitive use of water-rotated wheels may date
back to Sumerian times, with references to a "Month for raising the Water Wheels", though it is
not known whether these wheels were turned by the flow of a river.

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Ancient India

The early water wheel history of the watermill in India is obscure.

Ancient Indian texts dating back to the 4th century BC refer to the term cakkavattaka (turning
wheel), which commentaries explain as arahatta-ghati-yanta (machine with wheel-pots attached).

On this basis, Joseph Needham suggested that the machine was a noria.

Terry S. Reynolds however, argues that the "term used in Indian texts is ambiguous and does not
clearly indicate a water-powered device."

Thorkild Schiøler argued that it is "more likely that these passages refer to some type of tread -
or hand-operated water-lifting device, instead of a water-powered water-lifting wheel."

Irrigation water for crops was provided by using water raising wheels, some driven by the force
of the current in the river from which the water was being raised. This kind of water raising
device was used in ancient India.

The construction of water works and aspects of water technology in India is described in Arabic
and Persian works.

During medieval times, the diffusion of Indian and Persian irrigation technologies gave rise to an
advanced irrigation system which bought about economic growth and also helped in the growth
of material culture.

Greco-Roman Mediterranean

The earliest clear evidence of a Water wheel comes from the ancient Greece and Asia Minor,
being recorded in the work of Apollonius of Perge of c. 240 BC, surviving only in Arabic
translation.

Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus had a water mill at his palace at Cabira before 71 BC.[7]

In the 1st century BC, the Greek epigrammatist Antipater of Thessalonica was the first to make a
reference to the waterwheel, which Lewis has recently argued to be a vertical wheel. Antipater
praised it for its use in grinding grain and the reduction of human labour.

Modest numbers of water wheels have been identified in various parts of the Greek and Roman
World, and they may have once been much more extensive than historians have recognised.

Most towns and cities had good aqueducts, and it would not have been difficult to harness part of
the supply to driving water wheels for milling, fulling, crushing and sawing wood and stone such
as marble. The Romans used both fixed and floating water wheels and introduced water power to
other parts of the Roman Empire. The basic construction is described by the engineer Vitruvius
writing in 25 BC in his work De Architectura.

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The Romans were known to use waterwheels extensively in mining projects, with enormous
Roman-era waterwheels found in places like modern-day Spain.

They were reverse overshot water-wheels designed for removing water from mines.

A series of overshot mills existed at Barbegal near Arles in southern France where corn was
milled for the production of bread.

The Roman poet Ausonius mentions a mill for cutting marble on the Moselle.

Floating mills were also known from the later Empire, where a wheel was attached to a boat
moored in a fast flowing river.

Ancient China

Two types of hydraulic-powered chain pumps from the Tiangong Kaiwu of 1637, written by the
Ming Dynasty encyclopedist Song Yingxing (1587-1666).

Chinese water wheel history almost certainly has a separate origin. Early waterwheels were
invariably horizontal waterwheels.

By at least the 1st century AD, the Chinese of the Eastern Han Dynasty began to use
waterwheels to crush grain in mills and to power the piston-bellows in forging iron ore into cast
iron.

Qanat.

The qanat technology is known to have developed in pre-Islamic Iran and then spread to
other cultures. The value of a qanat is directly related to the quality, volume and regularity of the
water flow. Much of the population of Iran and other arid countries in Asia and North Africa
historically depended upon the water from qanats; the areas of population corresponded closely
to the areas where qanats are possible. Although a qanat was expensive to construct, its long-
term value to the community, and therefore to the group who invested in building and
maintaining it, was substantial.

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Plough

The plough (American spelling: plow; both pronounced /ˈplaʊ/) is a tool used in farming for
initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic
instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture.
The primary purpose of ploughing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh
nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds and the remains of previous crops, allowing them
to break down. It also aerates the soil, and allows it to hold moisture better. In modern use, a
ploughed field is typically left to dry out, and is then harrowed before planting.

Ploughs were initially pulled by oxen, and later in many areas by horses (generally draught
horses) and mules. In industrialised countries, the first mechanical means of pulling a plough
used steam-powered (ploughing engines or steam tractors), but these were gradually superseded
by internal-combustion-powered tractors. In the past two decades plough use has reduced in
some areas (where soil damage and erosion are problems), in favour of shallower ploughing and
other less invasive tillage techniques.

Ploughs are even used under the sea, for the laying of cables, as well as preparing the earth for
side-scan sonar[citation needed] in a process used in oil exploration.

New technology and the future

Though modern harvesters and planters will do a better job than their predecessors, the combine
of today still cuts, threshes, and separates grain in essentially the same way it has always been
done. However, technology is changing the way that humans operate the machines, as computer
monitoring systems, GPS locators, and self-steer programs allow the most advanced tractors and
implements to be more precise and less wasteful in the use of fuel, seed, or fertilizer. In the
foreseeable future, some agricultural machines will be capable of driving themselves, using GPS
maps and electronic sensors to become agricultural robots. Even more esoteric are the new areas
of nanotechnology and genetic engineering, where submicroscopic devices and biological
processes may be used as machines to perform agricultural tasks.

Current mechanized agriculture includes the use of airplanes, helicopters, trucks and tractors,
among other vehicles. Modern farms even sometimes use computers in conjunction with satellite
imagery and GPS guidance to increase yields. The need for mechanization is as a result of the
global population increase which must be fed. It improves the production efficiency by reducing
cost per unit of product,encourages large scale production and improves the quality of farm
produce. On the other hand, it displaces unskilled farm labor, causes environmental pollution,
deforestation and erosion

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Irrigation.

Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil. It is used to assist in the growing of
agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas
and during periods of inadequate rainfall. Additionally, irrigation also has a few other uses in
crop production, which include protecting plants against frost, [1] suppressing weed growing in
grain fields[2] and helping in preventing soil consolidation.[3] In contrast, agriculture that relies
only on direct rainfall is referred to as rain-fed or dryland farming. Irrigation systems are also
used for dust suppression, disposal of sewage, and in mining. Irrigation is often studied together
with drainage, which is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a
given area.

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REFERENCES.

 http://www.wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=14761
 http://history-world.org/agriculture.htm
 http://history-world.org/agriculture1.htm
 http://history-world.org/agriculture_and_the_rise_of_civi.htm
 http://history-world.org/ancient_civilization.htm
 http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Agriculture-Created-Civilizations&id=3050598
 http://www.bookrags.com/research/early-agriculture-and-the-rise-of-c-scit-011234/
 http://www.tworivers-tech.com/agriculture-inventions

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